Documents Dating Back to 1840 Intentionally Destroyed in Franklin County, N.C.

[G_j]

https://www.facebook.com/notes/heritage-society-of-franklin-county-nc/timeline-of-the-destruction-of-100-year-old-franklin-county-nc-records/554910501264078

Timeline of the Destruction of 100 Year Old Franklin County, NC Records

http://stumblingintheshadowsofgiants.wordpress.com/2013/12/21/160-year-old-documents-intentionally-destroyed-in-franklin-county-n-c/

This summer a new Clerk of Court in Franklin County discovered a trove (an entire roomful) of documents, some dating back to 1840, in a previously sealed room in the Franklin County, North Carolina Court House.

<snip>

- In August of this year, the Local Historians – realizing they may be beyond their depth in regard to the value of some of these materials, contacted the North Carolina Department of Archives, seeking guidance on proper preservation techniques and value assessment.

And that’s when things went hinky. The NC Archives group stepped in, pulled rank, and immediately halted all work on the project, stating that they were going to study the challenge and come up with “Next Steps”. Months passed and nothing got done, while the documents languished in the basement of the courthouse.

Then, on Friday, December 6, 2013, at 6:00 in the evening (after all the county workers had left, and with no notice to the local historical group involved in the project), a team from the North Carolina Archives swept in and confiscated ALL the materials – with the cover of Law Enforcement! They took the documents to the County Incinerator, and methodically burned EVERYTHING. They did this while a few locals stood by, not understanding why or precisely what was happening.

<snip>

[VanillaRhapsody]

1. They would be the same Carpetbaggers that sentenced my family to sharecropping!

and who still to this day are suffering the effects of...

[louis-t]

2. Book burner mentality.

Keep people ignorant so you can control them. Lie to them, cheat them, don't tell them what is in their food, take away the pension they've paid into for 40 years, take away the Social Security they've paid into for 40 years, keep their pay as low as possible, fill their heads with hateful propaganda...

[liberal N proud]

4. Exactly!

[saidsimplesimon]

13. louis-t, michigan is a native american word? n/t

[Kelvin Mace]

3. Stupid question, I know

but is anyone from the press covering this?

I would LOVE to know what there legal justification was. If they were in fact county records, it would be against the law to destroy them.

[G_j]

6. from the article,

"No explanation has been given, and no media attention has asked any questions."

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. The ancient principle of "because we say so". I'd bet that G_j has understated the case.

We'll never be certain, now, but I'd bet that there were documents that exposed a large number of crimes committed by now prominent families.

[loudsue]

27. Yes, it was on the 11:00 news the night after it happened, and there is a big stink

about it. But it was the CBS local news (Channel 5 WRAL).

[Kelvin Mace]

32. Ciao!

Long time no see.

Hope you are doing well.

[loudsue]

33. Hi David! Doing great! Good to see you!

Hope all is well with you, too! The Happiest of the New Year to you and yours!

[Kelvin Mace]

34. We need to get together some time

I could stand some time with folks who think.

[loudsue]

35. That would be great! PM me and we'll set it up!

I know what you mean!

[Sheldon Cooper]

5. Is the NC Dept. of Archives an official state office?

If so, it's incredible that these documents were allowed to be destroyed. Don't state offices have specific protocols about document destruction? It certainly does seem shady.

[blackspade]

22. Yes.

[riqster]

7. Same thing in France.

The Church ran the Huguenots out of the country, and then destroyed or altered the property records to obliterate our claim to ancestral lands.

[Alameda]

43. Same thing in Ireland, same thing to the Spanish/Mexican land grants....the beat goes on.

In Ireland a whole decade is missing.

[loudsue]

8. This is the county I live in. I knew about it at the time, and it was on the news in Raleigh, NC

which is the next county to the west of here...Raleigh is the capitol of NC. So when Franklin county Clerk of Ct. burned all the documents, it got on the local/state news.

The reason given for the burning was toxic black mold. The basement where these records were archived was wet from leaky pipes, leaking for years and years unbeknownst to those upstairs (who never ventured down to the basement), and it turned out the entire area was covered in black mold. The pages were all stuck together, wet. Moldy.

Was it handled badly? Oh hell yes. Do most stories have two sides? Yes again. The woman who had been put in charge, was put there because the former Clerk retired under a cloud of some kind, that nobody in the county is talking about. The woman who took the position was not someone who was a regular county employee, familiar with archives, etc, and was new to a power position in the county. So I think she just looked at a health issue, and figured she would fix it her own way.

Is it a large conspiracy about carpetbaggers and such? That is too far-fetched for the individual involved. She was just grossed out and worried about toxic black mold, and decided to be done with it. I suppose it was one of those "it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission" type of decisions.

She was going to run for the office that she took over during the next election. You can count on it that she won't be elected to that office after this stunt.

[G_j]

10. thanks, that makes sense

and fills in the gaps (the kind that lead to all sorts of suspicions)
I guess the explanation was not timely. It seems like a serious enough matter for legal action.

[Laelth]

39. Informative post. Thanks. n/t

-Laelth

[Historic NY]

11. Real Shame...lots of lost information.

I have a lot of old government records under my control, many have been gone through and inventoried. My town clerk doesn't get rid of anything w/o checking on the historic value. I am one of the records management officers. Yes stuff can be destroyed but they should not have destroyed some of the vital records w/o first copying the data.

For example would you keep a 100 years of school attendance cards or 100yrs of school census records.

If they were so molded there is a process to clean them. At this point the info lost is going to haunt them. The stuff in my control is or has been all backed up on microfilm. I haven't begun to digitalize stuff but I am looking into it. We do have it backed up on various media forms.

http://www.ncdcr.gov/archives/ForGovernment/FrequentlyAskedQuestions.aspx#publichavetheright

[loudsue]

15. I totally agree, and one of the historians in the county DID manage to copy a few hundred documents

before they were destroyed. I, personally, would NEVER have done what the new Clerk did. I would have figured out any way possible to preserve them, even if I had to hire a truck and buy one of those little pre-fab storage buildings. After what she did, she WILL be haunted for the rest of her life, in this county.

This is a small county, but played a very important part during both the revolutionary war and the civil war. Those records were irreplaceable. And they are now lost forever. Were they lost anyway? The historian that copied a few hundred documents before they were destroyed didn't think so....and she was the one who made it very public. She was in tears on the news when they reported it. Many of the other people involved, who worked around there, said the records were a serious health hazard, and support the actions of the new Clerk. It's like DU....people line up on both sides and duke it out until everyone around them is sick to death of the subject.

It is tragic for the entire county. And the biggest tragedy is that it's too late now to un-do what was done. There is no remedy.

[blackspade]

28. Was this health hazard documented at some level?

If so there should be a record of it.
Frankly, if there wasn't a complete building remediation for 'black mold' then the threat is likely overblown as mold does not contain itself to one room.
The best way to handle it would have been to remove the documents to a temp controlled facility and dry the documents out. Then you access them for value.

This is what happens when you have folks calling the shots who don't know shit about their actual job duties.

[loudsue]

30. And I think that is the bottom line: she didn't know shit about her actual job duties.

She never worked there before she got appointed. There would have been any of a dozen better, and LESS FINAL, ways to handle it. None of which she decided on. She's toast. People are really angry about it.

[G_j]

40. what an incredible find it was, unknown for all those years.

as you say, real history.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Get to the bottom: who ordered, make them testify, sue them. Throw the book. nt

[grilled onions]

14. Two Sides or ?

On the one hand if it was unhealthy,impossible to preserve wouldn't you think that, by now, with all the techniques available that it would have never gotten to this point? On the other hand if they are trying to sweep the history under the carpet(baggers) or other shady dealings they do not realize many lived through this history and much of it was passed along as family history to many who live today. Just like book burning and other forms of trying to erase what "some" disagree with or dislike others knowing about it will come out by hook or CROOK. You can no more erase history then deny it.

[loudsue]

18. With all the techniques available? Yes. To a county that isn't always broke. The State

archives did nothing after months....so the new Clerk did what she did. If the republican-run state of NC didn't have the resources or desire to move on it, our county....which is totally broke, and in the hole....sure wouldn't have the resources to give the Clerk any $$ or employee help.

What she did was really really stupid, but it wasn't to cover up anything. This Clerk went to school with my husband, and she just isn't involved in any kind of Da Vinci code conspiracy. She has read about toxic black mold, and was likely told how much it would cost to clean it up, and since she and her cohorts work one wooden floor above this room, I think she just panicked and decided to get rid of it all. Nobody else -- State archives, county commissioners, historical society -- was doing anything to fix it.

I'm NOT excusing what she did!!! It broke my heart totally!!! I have spent YEARS in courthouses, and I find those old records invaluable.

But she had the hubris to decide for the whole county how it would be handled. And she is now paying for it, and she always will. Small towns/counties in the south are not very forgiving.

[El_Johns]

45. "work one wooden floor above this room" = black mold wouldn't be confined to papers -- if her

worry is working above the room, maybe she'd better burn the building.

[KoKo]

16. On Edit: I see that Loud Sue above has given an explanation..

I was thinking the records could be destroyed because of Fracking interests in the area and not wanting people to look up records for land that was in dispute over the rights.

Fortunately....this sounds reasonable if it was black mold.

[loudsue]

23. Hi KoKo. Most of the fracking will start down near Lee County, and I don't know what is going on

with it this far north. I haven't heard of any landmen coming this way.

The shale that has already been located is down near Lee. That's where the fracking will start, I think.

But that is an interesting question, nonetheless.

Here a link to the page for the woman who did the burning.


http://www.nccourts.org/County/Franklin/Staff/Clerk.asp

I assure you, though...Trisha was not involved in any kind of a big conspiracy. In fact, it's mostly the local republicans who are going after her most vocally. I don't even know which way she votes, but she hasn't been active in the democratic party in our county... I've NEVER seen her at any of the meetings. Since she never ran for this office, but got appointed after the previous clerk left, it never came up whether she was Dem or Repuke.

The Tea Baggers, on the other hand, are swarming this county like killer bees. I'm sure they have their eye on this office now that Trisha is toast.

[KoKo]

41. Thanks...Will check out your link!

I can see where a newbie elected official would get upset over "Black Mold" and...let's face it many ...these days in NC care more for "Productivity Growth" than "Historic Preservation"...so it's the reality.

Thanks for your insight on this post.

[DallasNE]

17. Law Enforcement

Was this the local Sheriff and who gave the orders? Where was the court order. And why wouldn't people have been in there with cameras and photographing these documents for backup.

[loudsue]

24. No. This was her own doing. She had the records hauled out and carried down to the incinerator.

Last edited Mon Jan 6, 2014, 11:00 PM - Edit history (1)

She didn't have a court order...she's the Clerk of Court.

On edit: The sheriff's office evidently brought the hazmat (sp? ) suits, and helped take it all to the incinerator.

[heaven05]

19. Everyone is whining about these people

yet I know, for a fact, North Carolinians voted these people into office and consequently these people could appoint whomever. Snyder in michigan is the same kind of RAT!

[kestrel91316]

20. As a genealogist, I'm completely enraged by this.

[loudsue]

25. Me, too, kestrel. It's a terrible loss.

For all of us.

[JimDandy]

46. Hopefully these documents were microfilmed

years ago by the LDS church.

[LittleGirl]

37. +1 (amateur here) n/t

[KoKo]

42. Yes...both Loud Sue and the Original Poster on this thread and Myself..are upset.

but...given it was someone who worried over the Black Mold Terror...and Human Frailty affects all of us in a tight situation...I'll go with "Loud Sue's" explanation.

I just wish this person had contacted UNC Chapel Hill or DC Historical Societies with the Smithsonian or Something to see if they could "Fumigate the Black Mold" so that this Historical Record of Importance to Franklyn County could have been recovered with New Forensic Techniques.

But...sine the Republicans have taken over our State (We went Blue for Obama..First Term) ...I figure that it was the best this woman could do ...figuring that her whole Department would come down with Asthma or something from the "Black Mold."

Still the loss to Franklyn County's Records and the loss of Esteem for this Newly Elected Woman...seem to say...maybe MORE TIME should have been taken before the distruction of the records and more resources employed by NC Historical Resources and our Proud Universities who are gifted in RECONSTRUCTION of RECORDS.

It's a sad thing..no matter the Excuses...or the Reasons. But, then it's a NEW WORLD out there. HISTORY...is about Budget Resources and nothing else... SADLY...

[blackspade]

21. This is likely a violation of NC law

They should contact the State Archivist about the destruction.

I used to manage the destruction at a state archive over a decade ago, and there were strict guidelines for destructions and a definite paper trail.

It should be public information who authorized this.

[loudsue]

26. The clerk of court authorized it, and carried it out herself.

It may well be a violation of NC law....I don't know.

[blackspade]

29. Yep, she violated the law.

The Court Clerk is not authorized to do distructions on their own.

According to G.S. §121-5 and G.S. §132-8, state and local governmental entities may only destroy public records with the consent of the Department of Cultural Resources (DCR), the Division of Archives and Records. Retention schedules are the primary way that the Division of Archives and Records gives its consent to state and local governments to destroy their records.

Retention schedules serve as the inventory and schedule that DCR is directed by statute to provide. Retention schedules list records created and maintained by units of state and local government, and give an assessment of a records value (administrative, legal, fiscal, and/or historical) by indicating when (and if) those records should be destroyed.

http://www.ncdcr.gov/archives/ForGovernment/RetentionSchedules.aspx

Without an inventory there would have been no way to determine what could be destroyed.

[loudsue]

31. Thank you for that information. Now that I've read that, I would assume she will be charged

with a crime....if she is a democrat, which I don't know.

[LittleGirl]

36. wow, just wow n/t

[Laelth]

38. Bizarre. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Kablooie]

44. North Carolina. They've gone completely insane.

[CFLDem]

47. What a shame...

[Bluenorthwest]

48. I just finished the Grisham fiction 'Sycamore Row' in which records

just like these were key to uncovering a story of lynching and land grabs. I mean I just now, this morning, finished it. Life and art, they get mixed up at times.....

[loudsue]

50. Now that truly is weird. I haven't read Grisham's Sycamore Row.

Very strange indeed.

[Bluenorthwest]

51. Very large best seller.

Very well told and fictional tale, I have to wonder if those who burned these records had read the book. The book was released just ahead of the destruction of these actual records.
At any rate it is a very good book.

[kentauros]

49. Perhaps the "North Carolina Department of Archives"

should consider renaming themselves to the Ministry of Truth. Although, I suppose they have the same definition now, because burning everything is the exact opposite of "archiving."

[Bluenorthwest]

52. 1882-1968 there were 101 lynchings in North Carolina 86 black people,15 white people

zero prosecutions.

[Paladin]

53. There ought to be consequences for this.

It's one thing for your crazy old uncle to torch some of your family's legal documents without permission, but it's something entirely different when state authorities do it. I wonder what the title companies and legal firms in Franklin County think about all this. I wonder if that county clerk is sleeping well at night. I hope there's a satisfactory resolution to this matter, but I'm not very hopeful.